School report cards to change

Update shifts away from focus only on exam results

October 30, 2012|Diane Rado, Chicago Tribune reporter

Math teacher Breann Cooper works with a small group Friday reviewing concepts during an Algebra I class for middle-schoolers at Lincoln Prairie School in Hoffman Estates. The performance of algebra students in seventh- and eighth-grade will take on new significance next year. (Chris Walker, Chicago Tribune)

In an advanced algebra class for seventh- and eighth-graders, teacher Breann Cooper reviews a dizzying array of linear equations while students jot down a jumble of x and y formulas.

The subject matter at Lincoln Prairie School in Hoffman Estates can be daunting, but beginning next year the performance of junior high students in algebra will be one of several areas that take on new significance in how Illinois judges its public schools.

For the first time in 25 years, the state is making wholesale — and in some cases controversial — changes to its annual portrait of K-12 schools, with a goal of giving a holistic view that isn't dominated by scores from one or two days of state exams.

The Illinois School Report Card being released this week will be the last of its kind as the state overhauls academic standards, student testing and key measures used to determine whether schools are doing a good job.

At this time next year, parents and the public will be getting a report card filled with information that has not been available before in such detailed fashion. The data will include the percentage of eighth-graders who pass a crucial algebra class, of freshmen who pass enough ninth-grade courses to stay on track to graduate and of high school graduates who are considered prepared for key college classes.

Also highlighted will be the number and type of college-level Advanced Placement classes offered by high schools — a sign of the curriculum's rigor — as well as the availability of foreign language courses, which help prepare students to live in a global society.

Even the array of extracurricular activities offered will be reported, and parents will get a broader picture of a school's learning atmosphere from data on how often teachers are absent, whether teachers get good or excellent performance evaluations and other factors.

New student, parent and teacher surveys will be filled out early next year to help shape the portrait, through questions that will attempt to gauge everything from school safety to how welcome and involved families are at school.

"This is truly a transformational change,'' said former State School Superintendent Glenn "Max" McGee, who co-chaired the state's effort to revamp the annual report cards that critics say have become cumbersome, cluttered and useless to many people.

The current report cards date back to 1987-88, he said, and over the years they have grown into dozens of pages of black-and-white data in small type.

"The report card obfuscates rather than clarifies," said McGee, who is now president of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. "If we're going to be data-driven, let's give them (parents and the public) data in a good format that they can use to make decisions."

Paramount in the revision is a move away from judging schools largely on the results of state achievement exams, which dominated school report cards during the decade of No Child Left Behind federal education reforms.

Enacted in 2002, the federal law requires students of all backgrounds to pass state exams, with 100 percent of students passing by 2013-14 — a timeline many educators considered unrealistic and unattainable. Schools have faced sanctions for not meeting the annual passing requirements, called Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, and even top Illinois schools with stellar reputations were labeled as failing in past years, one of the things that has been included in the annual school report cards.

With the advent of new report cards next fall, "We believe this is the last year we'll be reporting AYP results under (No Child Left Behind)," said State School Superintendent Christopher Koch.

"The bottom line is that we are in a transition period in education and specifically in terms of how we view a student and a school's performance," he said.

In the past few years, Illinois and most other states have put in place the new "common core" standards for what students should know and be able to do. In 2014-15, new state exams will be given to grade school and high school students in Illinois. Because the No Child Left Behind law is still on the books, Illinois is seeking permission from the federal government to get around key provisions so it won't have to judge schools by AYP status anymore, among other changes.

New school ratings are expected to replace AYP, though the details have yet to be finalized, said Illinois State Board of Education spokeswoman Mary Fergus. An earlier proposal to implement "star" ratings for schools, similar to restaurants and hotels, had met with some criticism from educators.

"Whatever we do, our goal is to make a rating system that is transparent and informative," Fergus said.